Return of Thrawn
by E13M3N7
Summary: This short story begins 1 or 2 days after the end of The Last Command. Focusing on Pellaeon. No Flames. Please R and R!
1. Preview: Memories and Mysteries

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of Timothy Zahn's Characters. But those nice folks would never sue me. Right?  
  
The Return of Thrawn -  
Chapter Zero - Preview: Memories and Mysteries  
  
The Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera glided through space. Admiral Pellaeon stared off through the duraplex viewports of the dimly lit bridge into the cold darkness of space, thinking of his dead mentor and friend of thirty years, Grand Admiral Thrawn.  
  
He couldn't understand how the treacherous Noghri bodyguard, Rukh, had found out that the Empire had been poisoning Honoghr. Somehow, he had, and Pellaeon was going to find out. Rukh managed to incapacitate Pellaeon (Pellaeon had just yesterday finished the bacta treatments of his injuries) and stab Thrawn to death...and escape, too! Pellaeon swore to hunt down and kill the Noghri beast. The damned Rebels had no chance of infiltrating the Chimaera and killing Thrawn, nor did they have a chance at defeating the master planner in an all out battle.  
  
His thoughts drifted to the times he had had with the personable Thrawn. The two had served in the Academy together, and although Pellaeon was three years ahead of Thrawn, the two bonded quickly. Thrawn was always figuring out new schemes to make credits. Since he was at the head of his class, he was always charging his peers large sums of money for them to copy his work. The trainers there never stopped him; he was so charismatic that he always managed to escape disciplinary measure. Thrawn had managed to overcome the racial slurs that the Empire had to offer him, probably because he was so intelligent and charismatic. In addition, by the time he came into command of the Dagger, he already had quite a reputation for stopping lawbreakers and the Rebel threat.  
  
Pellaeon thought back to the duo's adventures in Wild Space, commanding the most feared Guardian Light Cruiser around: the Dagger. The ship had a reputation for never failing to catch the fugitives it was sent out to find. When the Empire's two most promising officers came in to the commandership and lieutenant-ship of it, the crime rate in the systems it patrolled drop drastically.  
  
He slowly brought himself out of his daydream when he heard the crisp footfalls of an Imperial Officer behind him.  
  
" Captain Pellaeon?" The officer asked.  
Pellaeon turned, seeing the young officer. He felt odd seeing him there. Something was out of place about him. He dismissed the warnings - thinking them to be a paranoia instilled by Thrawn's murder.  
  
"Yes, Lieutenant.?" He tried to put a name to his face, but couldn't. Odd, Pellaeon thought. I usually remember an officer's name.  
  
"Solakis, sir. Lieutenant Garn Solakis," said Solakis quickly, in a very informal voice. Solakis stood at ease. His uniform was sagging slightly and his boots weren't Imperial issue.  
  
"Yes. Lieutenant Solakis." He said, trying to remember seeing him aboard the Chimaera before. "What did you want," the Admiral asked in a distant voice.  
  
"Well, sir, we just emptied out the Grand Admiral's quarters," he said, absently wrapping his fingers on the datapadd that he held. "And we found something that you may want to see."  
  
"Very good, Solakis," he said, staring past him.  
  
------  
  
Without realizing it, Pellaeon found himself at the entrance to Thrawn's quarters, becoming conscious of the fact that he never had actually seen but a glimpse of the Grand Admiral's quarters. He and Thrawn had spoken, discussing politics, strategy, and reminiscing about old adventures on those occasional off duty hours, but the two never went to Thrawn's accommodations, always going to Pellaeon's.  
  
Suddenly, apprehension overwhelmed him. He felt that he didn't want to invade Thrawn's personal sanctuary. He rethought that for a moment, and shook the feeling off. Taking on a sense of duty, he stepped into the room, surprised at what he saw. 


	2. 1 Holographic Ghosts and Rebel Spies

You have seen the Preview, but NOW the true beginning of "Return of Thrawn" by 313M3N7 is here...  
  
The Return of Thrawn  
Chapter One  
  
Admiral Pellaeon was awestruck by the decorations and the spiritual motif that Thrawn had picked for his quarters. Predictably for Thrawn, there was a great deal of artwork. However, the art was not crafted by races Thrawn had beaten, but was graceful, delicate Chissian holo- paintings.  
  
The artwork mainly was done in blue and off blue hues, the Chiss skin color - which they took great pride in. Slender sculptures of Chiss stood in their entire splendor. The holo-paintings were very interesting, because they were - naturally - blue colors that changed hues ever so slightly. Pellaeon stood looking at one for a moment, admiring its beauty. Setting his hands down on the stand, he gazed at the illustration intently.  
  
Another shift of color occurred. An oval in the center of the hologram became darker blue, while some strands slightly above it changed to an even darker cyan. The rest of the background changed to blackness. Two familiar crimson almonds formed about halfway down the oval. Some small black lines appeared around the oval. Pellaeon thought for a moment, his brain trying to connect this image from somewhere. He suddenly realized that he was staring into Thrawn's face!  
  
"Hello, Captain," the Holographic specter said, the Grand Admiral's low, flat voice still strong from the grave. "If you are viewing this hologram, then I must be dead. I imprinted some of my basic brain patterns into a droid brain, so I could speak to you posthumously."  
  
Pellaeon, obviously startled and afraid, was speechless. "I-eh--?"  
  
"I realize that this must be odd, but what information I have to give may hold the fate of the Empire," the Specter of Thrawn's voice suddenly turning cold and serious. "I said that the basic patterns of my brain were here. Do NOT attempt to use this limited reproduction of Grand Admiral Thrawn for tactical and strategic matters: the droid brain would fry instantly."  
  
"Yes, sir," said Pellaeon, who had regained his voice. "How did you do this?"  
  
"I began work on this since we gained control of the Chimaera, Captain. I updated its memory banks ever since. In essence, this was my personal journal. My diary. It covers the span of Thrawn's life. Now I have a question for you: How did I die? I must finish the first chapter in the Grand Admiral's life."  
  
"Rukh, the Noghri -- Wait! Did you just say that you have to finish the first chapter, sir? I don't understand," said the befuddled Pellaeon.  
  
"Yes I did, Captain. Now what did Rukh do?"  
  
"He stabbed you, and injured me, preventing me from saving you.  
"How can only the first chapter be over if the Admiral is dead? How could we do more? Do you mean the life story of the Empire? I don't track here, sir."  
  
The specter laughed. "Captain, you ask too many questions of me. I told you that you would destroy the droid brain if you asked too many things of it, or treat it like Grand Admiral Thrawn. Now, thank you for telling me of the first death of Thrawn. In return, here are some things that you might find useful for resurrecting the late Grand Admiral. Good luck, Captain. If you succeed, I will see you again..."  
  
The image of Thrawn reverted back to the blue holo-painting.  
  
"Wait! What about resurrecting Thrawn?!"  
  
A small compartment on the duraplast stand of the art popped open. A tray with a small blue ball slid out and one of the Grand Admiral's white uniforms slid out. Upon closer examination, Pellaeon found a datapadd containing the shortest route to Csilla and a short note:  
  
The Lieutenant who came in here before tried to break into the  
  
system and decrypt the message. He failed, but made a copy of the  
  
program in his datapadd.  
  
---  
  
Lieutenant Solakis walked through the Chimaera tapping his fingers on the datapadd he held. He entered a turbolift and set a course for the docking bay.  
  
He stepped into the bay, which was fairly empty save for a few stormtroopers.  
  
He entered the passcode for the door release on his ship, a YT-2000 that the Republic had made sure the Chimaera found.  
  
"Hey, you! You're not supposed to get in that!" Exclaimed one the Empire's "Elite Shock" Troops.  
  
The Stormtrooper's shouts were silenced by two curt shots from the ship's cannons. Garn Solakis had always taken pride in his ship's AI and swift aim.  
  
He quickly boarded the ship, closing and locking the doors. In the meantime, the ship's computers picked off the last troops. He punched in the codes, disable the force field protecting the docking bay from the rest of the ship.  
  
His ship, the Solar Ranger, made a microjump about 1 kilometer away from the Chimaera, and then enabled the cloaking device. Watching - even from a distance - he saw the contents of Docking Bay 3 (6 TIE fighters, 12 technicians, 4 pilots and at least 30 barrels of fuel) fly out into the harsh environment of space.  
  
Smiling, he remembered that his mission was not half over. He pulled an innocent looking code cylinder out of his Imperial officer garb. He pressed the button on it, watching as the Command tower of the Chimaera shattered into billions of pieces. He watched the fireball consume the debris, satisfied with his handiwork.  
  
He set in coordinates for Coruscant, and engaged the hyperdrive.  
  
-----  
  
Pellaeon started running to the nearest turbolift, once he understood the message. He was about to enter when the ship shuddered, and the power went out.  
  
"Admiral Pellaeon to Bridge, what's going on up there?"  
  
No response, only crackling static.  
  
Wasting no time, he started walking to the nearest route to any docking bay, hoping against hope that he would find the spy. With the red emergency lights on, he could see easily.  
  
He found some stormtroopers as he neared docking bay three.  
  
"Admiral! Is it true that the command tower has exploded? What's going on sir?" Asked one of the confused troopers.  
  
"Come with me. I don't really know what's going on, but I know that there was an infiltration of the vessel and Grand Admiral Thrawn's private quarters."  
  
"Yes, sir." The troops surrounded Pellaeon, walking in sync with him. They had their blaster rifles out and pointing them at everything they saw.  
  
-----  
  
The squad found their way to the bay, and found out that they had missed the spy.  
  
Pellaeon stood at the head of his impromptu squad. A technician came up to him. The man was looked old and weathered with age.  
  
"Greetings, sir. I thought you might be coming down here. There was a man in officer's uniform who came down here. He hijacked a YT-2000 that we had confiscated, and flew off."  
  
"Very good, technician. Were you able to track him?" Pellaeon said, having gathered his bearings after seeing Thrawn, in full Imperial Splendor.  
  
"No sir. Can't make head nor tail of it. He disappeared behind an asteroid, and just vanished! Can't understand these damned Rebels but they sure do have some neat tricks!" The technician - Qarl Bect, an old hick from Tatooine that Thrawn found amusing - said.  
  
"Interesting... very interesting... keep working on it, Tech Bect," he said, making a point to remember Bect's name. Pellaeon walked towards the turbolift, and set a course for the bridge.  
  
"ERROR - THE SHAFT CONNECTING THIS CAR TO THE BRIDGE HAS BEEN DISCONNECTED," Ejected the computer in a harsh and broken voice.  
  
Pellaeon stepped to the next car, punched in the same code, and got the same error message. He ended up taking a car to the closest level to the bridge.  
  
Stepping out in the dining area, he looked around and saw complete and utter chaos. Stormtrooper corpses lay everywhere. Officers in bloody uniforms hauled people of the ground, which was covered in soot, flesh, and shards of glass and duracrete. He looked up.  
  
Instead of seeing the normal duracrete ceiling he saw the constellation Cartoris and billions of other stars.  
  
"Admiral on the...bridge..." said one of the Officers - Sevia Nara was her name. All of the others looked up at him and saluted. "We don't know what happened, sir. Most of us were sitting here when something exploded in the bridge. We estimate that we have lost over 500 men, most of them Officers. Captain Torlec is dead. We would he been killed as well, except that the emergency force field kicked in. We've been trying to contact you..."  
  
"Damn it. I can't believe we let a spy get in..."  
  
"Spy, sir?"  
  
"Yes, a spy disguised as an Imperial Officer who claimed his name was 'Solakis.' I believe that he planted the explosive charges that destroyed the bridge. He also stole valuable data and a ship that we confiscated."  
  
The two walked down to the second level of the makeshift bridge. Searching the datafiles and security-recordings they found out that he a smuggled himself onto the Chimaera in the YT-2000, discreetly dropped off the explosives on a panel that he worked on, met with Rukh hours before Thrawn was killed.  
  
Sevia also discovered that Solakis was a Rebel operative - his ID read that he attended Imperial Academy, was caught smuggling information and weaponry to the Rebels, served three years on an Imperial penal colony on the hellishly hot moon of Carida, Xarcel.  
  
Nara and Pellaeon walked back to his quarters - Nara insisted that he be relieved of duty because he "still needed to recover from bacta treatment."  
  
Pellaeon was the one who had chosen Narda for duty on the Chimaera a long time ago. He admired her perfect academy grades. The two were about the same age - their mid-30s, had come from similar socioeconomic class. However, Yxervia had never excelled in her position as Pellaeon had. Perhaps Pellaeon only had become Captain because he followed Thrawn around - and Thrawn had made sure that Pellaeon had excelled.  
  
The couple had discussions similar to the ones he and Thrawn used to have on their long walk back to Pellaeon's quarters in the middle of the "dagger" section of the Chimaera. They reached that door finally both staring at each other.  
  
"So..."  
  
"So..."  
  
"Do you want to come in? I can make you some dinner if you want..."  
  
"They taught you cooking in the Academy?"  
  
"No, my mother insisted that I needed to learn to cook because the Mess Hall grub isn't edible."  
  
They both laughed for a moment, and then there was an awkward silence.  
  
"Sure. It's better than Imperial rations, right?"  
  
-----  
  
We hope that you enjoyed Chapter One of "Return of Thrawn" by 313M3N7. More coming soon! 


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